Studies on the resolution of subcellular free calcium concentrations: a technological advance. Focus on 'Detection of differentially regulated subsarcolemmal calcium signals activated by vasoactive agonists in rat pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells'

摘要

free calcium is highly controlled in biological tissues, and much like the physical chemistry of elements (5), its concentration is unequal in distribution (for recent reviews on calcium signaling see Ref. 2). However, how much free calcium exists within various subcellular domains, and how these concentrations shift in response to environmental cues, is still poorly understood. In this issue of American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology, Subedi and colleagues (12) report on the development of a research tool that enables discrimination between calcium signals at the plasma membrane, in the bulk cytosol, and in the nucleoplasm. These tools open new opportunities for researchers to pair regionally restricted calcium signals with physiological outcomes.